Moving Forward...

Please be patient while we take inventory of where we are and what's still left to do:

Staff:
We are still reviewing staff applications and making changes as we go. I'll be meeting with each staff member to ensure that they are aware of what's expected and know the mod tools. Since I don't know some as well as others - we'll likely have a temporary period before they are part of the official staff moving forward. I've worked with some JDG and Crackers previously for example but not some of the others.

Archive:
There are a number of old topics - and we'll be reviewing and merging and locking some old topics.

Logo:
We have a temporary logo up for now. We will be replacing it once we begin to get submissions for the Logo.

Hierarchy:
We are reviewing the hierarchy and looking to make things more streamlined for our members. We'll keep you posted on this as we know more but feel free to make suggestions.

Ads - Signature:
We had a fairly strict policy on where ads could be located and how to do this as well as signatures. I'll be posting some revised guidelines to help our members.

Content:
We will remain a G forum.

Expanding Lego content areas:
We are discussing this further and feel free to post suggestions in the innovations area.

Old Polls:
I've locked some of the results so that we captured the final numbers. However if you feel you'd like to resubmit those ideas - feel free to. We'll be creating some new polls or topics as idea starters. Be on the lookout for that.

Social Media:
We will likely open some type of chat for staff but we need to discuss further. We will likely create a poll for member chat, fb, twitter etc.

Keywords:
Someone suggested new keywords. Please provide input.

Homepage / Widget:
We are likely to expand the site beyond just a forum area. I'll provide more info on this soon.

MLN Stores:
I'd like to know who still has an active MLN store open?

We'll keep you posted,

Lindavz and staff

To my understanding, the staff removed the signature forum link rule a few months ago...

I still have an active MLN shop. It has had some posts in the past week.

Crackers wrote:To my understanding, the staff removed the signature forum link rule a few months ago...

The rule is likely to change

It was causing fights and people spamming the chat, those sig ad rules are more trouble then they're worth

Spam eh? If I were ever allowed to be a mod here I would not come down hard on an in-frequent spammer. The ones that do it every post should be dealt with. Spam in my opinion is just another word for being human and saying what is on your mind or perhaps just an attempt to lighten a situation. I feel that many forums take this spam thing way to seriously.

I am actually reviewing all the rules - including that one. I don't want to single out that rule in particular - but we will likely readdress it.

As for 'spam', I am less concerned about some fun posts in the games area - than the links to other forums. Some previous staff members (not talking about the most recent ones) were concerned about grammar much more than I was for example.

I am open to other ideas so feel free to comment on any of the other items listed.

This probably sounds awk, but I'm just wondering what's wrong with sig links to other forums?

I mean, yeah, I know that if it were a non-kid-friendly forum, that would be a bad thing, but like-minded G-rated forums...?

Thank you both, Spam is simply going off topic as to my understanding, when people get together in the real world, they don't ban each other for speaking......................Off topic

Crackers wrote:This probably sounds awk, but I'm just wondering what's wrong with sig links to other forums?

I mean, yeah, I know that if it were a non-kid-friendly forum, that would be a bad thing, but like-minded G-rated forums...?

We've discussed this at length before. One of the issues is attrition and the ability of the forum / site to sustain itself and how many clicks go elsewhere. There is a whole science to it actually. We accommodated having the links to things within the profile which people can find easily. Additionally we get complaints when people use large images, inappropriate images, large font of links, links to non g rated items fairly consistently.

What is the big question, the mods are always trying to improve the layout, the players are just trying to get attention.

Bottom line, keep doing the Lego theme....

It's whether the 'attention' is good for the forum and the members. Not all members agree nor want to see big images from the sigs between posts - forcing the scrolling longer. And it's not like people can't hit the website button on the profile on the right... it's not that much of an inconvenience. And it certainly improves the readability of messages.

Thanks, what else can i do?, or not do

Make suggestions. Be good forum members. Use the report button if something is against the rules. Offer to create new content. Post often : )

lindavz wrote:

Crackers wrote:This probably sounds awk, but I'm just wondering what's wrong with sig links to other forums?

I mean, yeah, I know that if it were a non-kid-friendly forum, that would be a bad thing, but like-minded G-rated forums...?

We've discussed this at length before. One of the issues is attrition and the ability of the forum / site to sustain itself and how many clicks go elsewhere. There is a whole science to it actually. We accommodated having the links to things within the profile which people can find easily. Additionally we get complaints when people use large images, inappropriate images, large font of links, links to non g rated items fairly consistently.

So having a signature like this for an example: "Visit {INSERT RANDOM WEBSITE}!" With no images and normal text is allowed? Or no? I'm kinda confused on this Subject...

Thanks for asking.

I'll have to relook at the rules as there were last. They were modified so I want to review my old copy (just need to get to it).

The gist of the matter is that people were using the signatures to drive traffic away - particularly when people were angry. We'd get signatures that were HUGE and took up the entire screen for example, or spamming messages so that people could see their site on every message so the games would get particularly used for ads there, as well as pm's. We devised rules and added the second website to allow for more flexibility in people showcasing their site without disturbing the members. We also wanted to allow for people who had pokie plushies (I think click games) that weren't to another forum but merely asked for clicks for their item to grow. So we asked for limitation of the websites to be not lego related forums. Again, I need to review the rules and I'll repost them.

So... It's like no "competing" forum links in sigs?

I guess every forum is different, but over at LZPower we don't mind forum links in sigs, even if they're LEGO forums. I guess we think of other forums as part of the community. I think it's awesome when someone creates a new forum, and if they want to advertise that in a way where people will actually see it, we support that.

And we're not losing members either. Maybe things are different here, but I'm just saying that it's never been an issue in my experience. We don't see other forums as competition, but as another branch in the community.

That's exactly why we allow for links in the Website other topics and links in signatures. That allows for the advertising but not distracting enough from the messages.

I still need to review it - it's on my todo list.